"When Horn read Carroll’s post and realized it provided an opening for him to attack Diane Ravitch, I wonder if he wet himself from glee." --Mercedes SchneiderNo, Ms. Schneider, I did not wet myself from glee when I read Kathleen Carroll's commentary, but I am pretty pissed right now after reading your uncharacteristically bitter attack on anyone who raises questions about what Diane Rav
My Not So Good Knee-Leg News
After writing a post last week to tell you about the great progress I have made, about going from walker to cane to walking like a normal person, I suffered a sudden setback. Out of nowhere, I developed a very large hematoma on the back of my operated leg. That’s a humongous bruise that is black-blue and very ugly. Suddenly, I couldn’t walk. The pain was intense. The physical therapist said I prob
How to Create a “Failing” Public School
A reader sends a simple recipe that city officials in places like Chicago and Philadelphia use when they want to close a public school and open a charter school: “They create the demand by killing the public school BEFORE they close it. They underfund it, cut all the specials, close school libraries, let guidance counselors go, get rid of attendance officers, class sizes become huge. What is a pa
Chicago Parents Grill City Officials About Budget Cuts
At a public hearing, Chicago parents and teachers demanded to know why the city closed 50 public schools while opening charter schools. “How could CPS continue to cut budgets at neighborhood schools while opening new charter and contract schools — even after shutting down a record number of schools just a year ago? “We need to pull the money from the plan of expanding charter schools, reinvest in
Breaking News: Massachusetts Senate Votes Not to Lift Cap on Charter Schools
In a surprise move, the Massachusetts State Senate voted 26-13 not to increase the number of charter schools in the state. A similar bill cleared the House by a vote of 114-35 in May. “The Senate proceeded in a separate 9-30 vote to also defeat the underlying bill that had cleared the House.” The Senate President, Therese Murray said: “In some ways, the vote could be looked at as a reflection of
Poll: Karen Lewis Could Beat Rahm Emanuel
A recent poll shows that if Chicago’s mayoral election were held now, union leader Karen Lewis would beat Rahm Emanuel. “If the mayoral election were held today, the lightning rod union leader who was the architect behind a 2012 teachers’ strike would beat Emanuel by 9 percentage points in a head-to-head contest, the survey found. “Lewis was leading Emanuel 45 percent to 36 percent with 18 percen
Courtney Bowie: Vouchers and Privatization Undermine Educational Equity
Courtney Bowie is a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program. In this article, she describes the ACLU’s efforts to stop discrimination against students with disabilities in Wisconsin’s voucher program. Privatization, she says, is promoting segregation and rolling back decades of legal advances for students of color and students with disabilities. In Wisconsin and elsewhere, vou
David Perrin: What Would Mark Twain Have Thought About Common Core Testing?
Writing in The Atlantic, high school English teacher David Perrin tries to imagine what Mark Twain would think about Common Core testing. He begins: I’ve been teaching high school English in Illinois for over 20 years, but have only recently come to believe that I am complicit in a fraud. For nearly a decade, I have dutifully prepared college-bound students for the rigors of the ACT and the Ad
Bruce Baker: Why Vergara Precedent Makes No Sense in New York
At the heart of the Vergara decision lies a logical fallacy: eliminate due process and seniority from teachers, and schools with low-performing students will magically have a great teacher in every classroom. To say this makes no sense is an understatement. In this post, Bruce Baker demonstrates that it makes no sense empirically either. As he concludes: “In the land of VergarNYa… a world where
How “Reformers” Lie About Graduation Rates
I did not write the following post. It was written by a high-level official at the New York City Department of Education who–for obvious reasons–requires anonymity. The story he tells is instructive. It is about how “reformers” claim victory by manipulating statistics. This is not an accusation directed at the de Blasio administration, but at their predecessors who regularly boasted that the new s
YESTERDAY
Mercedes Schneider on Unions, Kathleen Carroll, Me, TURN, Money, Power, and Reform
In recent days, there has been an extended discussion online about an article by California whistle blower Kathleen Carroll, in which she blasts Randi Weingarten and the Teachers Union Reform Network for taking money from Gates, Broad, and other corporate reform groups, in some cases, more than a dozen years ago. Carroll also suggests that I am complicit in this “corruption” because I spoke to the
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 7-16-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Georgia: Jason Carter vs. Nathan Deal for GovernorJason Carter, grandson of President Jimmy Carter, is running for governor of Georgia against incumbent Nathan Deal. Carter, elected to the state senate in 2010, is a graduate of Duke University who served in the Peace Corps in South Africa, the graduated from the University of Georg